


Corporal Punishment

by ellewrites



Series: You + You + Me = 3 [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Good BDSM Etiquette, Good Cop Bad Cop, M/M, Multi, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 10:21:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20599163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellewrites/pseuds/ellewrites
Summary: “I could torture you to within an inch of your life.” Rhodey’s fingers dug into the red marks on Tony’s ass, making him cry out in pain. “I could have you begging me to stop.”“Please,” Tony begged in response and Bruce honestly wasn’t sure whether Tony was begging him to stop or to keep going.





	Corporal Punishment

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the “aftercare” square on my rare pair bingo card but it’s been a thing I’ve been wanting to write for a while now. Didn’t really know it was going to turn out exactly like this but here we are. Huge huge huge thanks to [xYoSa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xYoSa) for beta’ing this for me!!

“_Goddamn_ _it_ you guys!” Tony shouted, a desperate note to his wail that left a deep well of guilt in Bruce’s gut. “I can’t even sit down! This isn’t _fair_!” 

Bruce wrung his hands together, looking over at Rhodey, who didn’t seem to feel an ounce of the guilt Bruce was currently experiencing. On the contrary – he looked downright amused. 

“I’m never going to get used to this,” Bruce muttered as Tony pitched another whine. It had been fifteen full minutes of stubborn silence but now came the hard part.

“Aw fuck – come  _ on _ ! What am I supposed to  _ do _ ?” 

Rhodey licked his lips and smirked, pulling on one of Bruce’s curls with affectionate amusement.

“You wanna give him what he wants, right?” 

“I mean...” Bruce looked back at the door, imaging Tony kneeling on the bed with his balls clamped between a humbler Rhodey brought back from God only knew where that was elongated beyond anything Bruce had seen before and attached to his wrists, effectively immobilizing him on his knees as he gave another shout – 

“You know I’ll do  _ anything _ you want, right? You guys can double up, tag team it, I’ll blow you both ‘til I’m blue in the face, but this – fuck,  _ ow _ !” Bruce could hear the way Tony’s voice split and whatever he was doing in there, he was in actual pain for a moment. “This is fucking  _ cruel _ !” 

“He’s hurt,” Bruce whined, his chest aching, and Rhodey chuckled. 

“We’re not going to let him get really hurt,” Rhodey assured him but Bruce worried his lower lip between his teeth anyway. “And besides, we’ve talked about this. Tony’s a big boy – if it gets too bad, he’ll safe word out.”

Bruce swallowed and nodded, trying to remember that. Tony had used his safe word before and even though Rhodey was the more cavalier of the two of them in a scene, he was nothing but kind and loving and supportive afterwards. Bruce saw clearly how much Rhodey loved Tony crystallized in that one moment and that was it – Bruce trusted him implicitly after that. 

It had been a while since Rhodey had been here though, sent halfway across the world on some classified military project. They’d been through some shit in the interim – Bruce nearly lost his job telling the director where he could shove it after firing half his staff without his consent and Tony was forced to sit in press conference after press conference about stock prices as the economy was in freefall after tariff negotiations fell through and really – it had been a bad couple of months. 

Tony needed this – needed to feel raw and weak and absolutely abandoned and then glued back together with love and affection – and Bruce needed to feel needed, like he was the only one who could give Tony even a fraction of what he needed. But it didn’t work without Rhodey providing much needed counterpoint. So they spent two and a half months yelling at each other then angst-fucking their way to Bruce stubbornly sleeping on the couch only to crawl back into bed the next night with mournful apologies. 

But Rhodey was back now. And he was going to fix it. He was going to hold Bruce together as Tony fell apart and then he was going to be the glue that let Bruce piece Tony back together, too. It was a big fucking ask but Rhodey? Bruce was pretty sure that in his own way Rhodey needed them as badly as they both needed him. 

“ _ Bruce _ ,” Tony moaned out like a wounded animal, changing tactics when he got no response. “Bruce,  _ Bruce _ , baby,  _ please _ ...! Don’t leave me alone like this.” 

It felt like a damn knife in Bruce’s ribs but Rhodey just reached out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from going for the doorknob. 

“He’s calling for you because he knows you’re weaker than me,” Rhodey hissed but Bruce didn’t care. It was true. He couldn’t take it. 

“You can’t  _ do _ this, Bruce.  _ Bruce _ ! I love you so much baby, don’t. Please  _ don’t _ .” 

After sleeping on the couch on and off for the past few weeks it was like a personal attack – hell, it wasn’t ‘like’ a personal attack, it  _ was _ a personal attack – and Bruce knew it. But it hurt something wicked and guilt licked from the pit of his stomach up to his heart, making his chest ache. He could feel his hand tremble beneath Rhodey’s wrist. 

“Are you going to  _ cry _ ?” Rhodey asked with a hint of disbelief and Bruce blinked against the hot tears welling up in his eyes. 

“Please, Bruce,  _ please _ – don’t leave me...” Tony’s voice had turned from a plea to a whimper and Bruce sucked in a deep breath as he fought back the tears no one needed just then. “Don’t leave me all alone, don’t do it,  _ please _ .”

“You guys are going to have to get straight with me about what happened while I was gone,” Rhodey said as he let go of Bruce’s hand and it dropped limply to his side. 

That was fair. Mostly they were so happy to have Rhodey home that they didn’t talk about it too much over the past two days. Plus, Rhodey didn’t live with them, not yet – continued to deny what a functional part of this relationship he was, continued to make believe he was going to settle down with a nice girl or something one day, and they let him. But it sure made pillow talk and downer conversations difficult when Tony shot up to cloud nine whenever Rhodey came around. 

“Fuck you anyway!” Tony suddenly shrieked and Bruce flinched while Rhodey tried not to laugh. “You motherfucking  _ son of a bitch _ ! Leave me here for all I fucking care! I’ll get out eventually but I  _ never _ want to see your fucking face again!” 

Bruce’s lip quivered and he knew the fight was over – he was going to fucking cry. He knew it was bullshit but it was too close to the fights they’d had, too angry, too visceral and real, and he found himself reaching out to Rhodey, burying his face in his shoulder and crying all the tears that wouldn’t come when he lay on their couch, imagining what it would be like if he were a better person, a better division head, a better lover, a better everything. Less of a coward. More willing to leave. That’s what Tony wanted, wasn’t it? Why didn’t he just leave?

“Get it out, buddy,” Rhodey murmured warmly as he held him against his chest, broken little boy, not Rhodey’s or anyone else’s responsibility to fix but here he was anyway. “Tony’s just running his mouth, you know. It’s okay.”

“And fuck you, too, James Rupert Rhodes!” Tony shouted, voice growing hoarse. “I know it’s you, you fucking asshole! The military did a real goddamn number on you. Bruce would have come and saved me by now but  _ you _ ...! You’re the real sadistic cunt!” 

Bruce’s fingers curled tighter in Rhodey’s shirt – sure that had to hurt him – but somehow Rhodey chuckled. It was all the game it was supposed to be to him and as Bruce sniffled away his tears, he envied him that. Rhodey didn’t get too emotional about it, didn’t let it affect him. Bruce wondered what it was like to be so well adjusted. 

After a few minutes Bruce realized that there was silence from the room now and that his breathing was growing more even. 

“It was real bad,” he murmured against Rhodey’s chest and Rhodey made a ‘tch’ noise as he rubbed at his shoulder. 

“I’m gathering that.”

“Work shit, you know,” Bruce said as he straightened up and wiped at his eyes, thinking a little more clearly now that Tony wasn’t yelling obscenities at him. “But it’s so hard...”

It’s so hard not to get distracted. Rhodey knew. He’d seen this song and dance before, picked them back up off the floor. It was pathetic, really. How two people could love each other so much and let so much external shit stand in the way of that. So much so that they needed a whole other person to come in and fix it. 

Really, they should try some fucking counseling. 

There was a low moan behind the door and Bruce realized Tony was crying. It hurt – but every noise Tony made hurt. Bruce didn’t want him to cry – never wanted him to cry, only ever wanted to see that gorgeous smile on his face – but he knew he needed to. Tony needed the release just as badly as Bruce did. And Rhodey knew it too. 

“I saw the press conferences, you know,” Rhodey confessed as they waited Tony out, distracting Bruce as they let Tony war with his internal demons alone, waited until he felt so small and alone that he would be pliant putty in their hands. “Tones looked like shit.”

Bruce’s lips quirked a brief grin. Tony never ‘looked like shit’ to him but he knew what Rhodey meant. Haggard. Frustrated. Bored. A look Rhodey was familiar with and understood well; probably how Tony looked in college most of the time. 

“They sacked half my team,” Bruce said, “took ‘em right out from under me and I couldn’t do shit. Everything’s fucked, deadlines are a disaster, I’ve got Ross breathing down my neck just waiting to fire me too...”

“Fuck,” Rhodey finally uttered, rubbing at his chin. “And I thought my job sucked.”

Bruce pursed his lips together, frustrated. “You can’t even talk about your job.”

Rhodey’s grin faltered for the first time. “You should thank your lucky stars.”

“Hey.” Bruce reached out and grabbed his wrist this time, rubbing his thumb soothingly along the pulse point. “You’re home now.”

And maybe ‘home’ was a messy kind of triad relationship full of borderline masochistic sex with his unbelievably needy best friend and his emotionally stunted boyfriend but at least it was consistent, right? Bruce wasn’t sure. But Rhodey kept coming back despite the fact that Bruce was fairly sure Rhodey wasn’t even attracted to him and Tony could be downright cruel to him when he wanted to be so he had to get  _ something _ out of it. He and Tony had talked about it until there was nothing left to say and then they started all over again. And again. They both tried to give Rhodey  _ something _ .

And just like that, that easygoing smile of Rhodey's was back. “I know. So I don’t have to think about that shit right now.”

Bruce dropped his hand and they stood in silence a moment before Rhodey gently pressed his ear to the door, listening for Tony. It had to have been nearly a half hour since they'd started and Bruce wasn’t sure they'd ever left him alone that long before. His knees had to be killing him but he wasn’t crying in physical pain so he had to have figured out a way to withstand it. Tony was nothing it not inventive.

That was part of what made these scenarios so intense for him, Bruce knew that. Tony knew, in the rational part of his mind, that they were standing just on the other side of the door. They’d both assured him of that over and over again. But in another part of his brain, they’d gotten bored of waiting, went out to the kitchen and were talking or cooking or making out or fucking over the table forgetting about him completely. Maybe they went down the street to get a coffee and got distracted the way Bruce was wont to do in the bookstore next door and they’d forgotten they’d left him there and maybe, if he was lucky, he’d become an afterthought when they came back.  _ If _ they came back. Maybe they’d not forgotten about him at all. Maybe they’d decided they were better off without him and they just left. Really left. Bruce would move wordlessly in with Rhodey and they would be happy together and never talk to him again and – 

And Bruce thought all of that was beyond preposterous but Tony had confessed it to him more than once. That his anxiety just got the best of him and every horrible thing he could think of suddenly felt terrifyingly and imminently real. He would feel nauseous, start sweating, cry – none of it was an act. Bruce was horrified and he didn’t understand. All of his life he ran like hell from his fears. He could never put himself through that. 

_ Why? _ Bruce had asked, completely overcome.  _ Why do this to yourself? _

_ Do you have any idea how fucking good it feels when you finally open that door? _

Well, no – Bruce didn’t. And he didn’t know what he ever would. But it sure did feel pretty damn good to see Tony’s pure, unfiltered adulation at seeing him again. So much of the time he spent thinking Tony deserved better than him that seeing  _ that _ look on his face, desperate and hopeful and filled with love? It made Bruce’s heart soar. It made him forget all of his own anxiety for a few brief but glorious hours, made him believe he could be just what Tony needed, made him want to hold him and love him until there was no love left. It was perfect. Perfect. 

And Rhodey gave that to them. 

“Do you think he’s ready?” Bruce whispered, wringing his hands together, ready to get in there and wrap Tony up in his arms and kiss him until his lips were sore with it. 

“Almost,” Rhodey replied, never wavering, never doubting – the suave self-confidence that they both lacked.

Bruce didn’t really understand why someone as handsome and well-adjusted and smart and, well, as  _ normal _ as Rhodey wanted two wrecked messes like him and Tony in his life – though clearly he  _ did _ as he’d been taking care of Tony in some form or fashion for over ten years now. In some ways it was easier to understand Tony’s anxiety riddled fantasy than it was to understand why Rhodey suggested this in the first place. But Bruce tried really damn hard not to look that gift horse in the mouth. He just wished he could give Rhodey something more than what he got in return.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Bruce couldn’t help asking it but Rhodey didn’t laugh at him, he just smiled and hit him the shoulder with the back of his hand. 

“Yeah, he’s okay. And he’s going to be even better in a couple minutes. Just a little longer, now.”

They’d learned pretty quickly that this was not a thing they could do without Rhodey there. Bruce really couldn’t let Tony be in any kind of perceived discomfort without it tearing him apart inside and he needed Rhodey’s assurance. It didn’t matter how many times Tony told him he wanted it or how much he explained, too many years of being kicked around as a kid made him soft and he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be that. He didn’t  _ want _ to. But Rhodey? Rhodey could. Rhodey could help him give Tony what he needed. Bruce was pretty sure Rhodey would never know how much he appreciated that. 

Still, it felt like a damn eternity before Rhodey decided it was time to rescue Tony from his exile and Bruce braced himself for what Tony would look like when he walked in there. It was an easy role – Rhodey let him do exactly what he was good at: rushing in to give Tony all the withheld affection he could handle. But he didn’t want to completely fall apart in front of him either.

When he pushed open the door to their bedroom Tony had moved from his initial place in the center of the bed, turning around completely and crawling forward in little inches on his knees until he could rest his upper body into the headboard, alleviating the pressure on his knees but keeping his body mostly straight so the humbler wouldn’t pull too tightly on his balls. Tony’s face had been pressed into the headboard but when he heard the door open he turned his head to look at them and despite the fact that his face was red with crying and he had to be in some kind of physical pain after kneeling for over half an hour, he gave Bruce the biggest, most genuine smile, the kind of smile he straight up longed for, and it made his palms sweaty and his heart seize. 

“Oh, Tony,” he whispered as he moved forward to the bed, gathering Tony up in his arms and creating a space for himself between Tony and the headboard. “I’m here now, I’m here, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” 

Bruce patted his hair and stroked his neck and kissed his face all over as Tony leaned all his weight into him, taking big desperate breaths and Bruce knew Tony was going to start crying again. 

“Let me get this off of you,” Bruce assured him with a firm and gentle tone, quickly twisting off the fly nuts that held the two pieces of wood together along either side of his wrists to release his hands and balls. “You did so good Tony, so good, okay? You’re so good to me. You're so good.” 

There was a sharp snap that caused them both to jump as Rhodey smacked a worn leather paddle into his hand and Tony’s breath caught as he buried his face deeper in Bruce’s neck, looking for somewhere to hide.

“What was that you called me earlier?” Rhodey said, his voice hard, and Tony flinched when he realized what he meant.

“I didn’t know what I was saying,” Tony lied, the words tumbling quickly out of his mouth as Rhodey climbed up on the bed. 

“Don’t lie to me,” Rhodey growled. “Say it again.” 

Tony licked his lips as Bruce wrapped him in his arms protectively. 

“You have to tell him,” Bruce whispered in Tony's ear, cradling the back of his head with his hand like he could shield him from his friend. “If you lie the punishment will be more severe.” 

“You’re a sadistic cunt,” Tony moaned belatedly and Bruce caught Rhodey’s feral grin as his hand touched Tony’s back, running down it, curling along his pert ass and grabbing a handful of it. 

“See? That’s what you meant all along, right?” Rhodey said and Bruce felt Tony’s arms tremble. “You’ve got a filthy fucking mouth, you know that, right?” 

Tony moaned again as Bruce pet his hair, kissing at it, comforting him against Rhodey’s brutal words. 

“It’s okay,” Bruce whispered into his hair. “It’s okay baby, I’m here.” 

“I can’t let that go,” Rhodey said, pitching his voice like disappointment. “You know I have to spank you.”

“I’m  _ sorry _ ,” Tony whined and then cried out as Rhodey gripped his ass with bruising force. 

“Sorry isn’t going to cut it you insolent prick,” Rhodey hissed, drawing his hand back and slapping him hard as Tony cursed. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Bruce soothed and he felt hot tears start dampening his shirt. “You can do this.” 

“I’m so bad,” Tony cried as Bruce wrapped his hands around his face and pulled him back to kiss his cheeks. 

“No, no,” Bruce murmured against them as Rhodey barked a laugh. 

“Bad?” he asked cooly. “You’re the fucking worst. You’re nothing more than a pathetic, sniveling pansy. I should make you lick my boots.” 

“Shh, shhh,” Bruce comforted in his ear. “Don’t listen to him, you can do this.” 

The dichotomy between them caused a rift in Tony that split him in half and made him cry. Bruce knew – both seemed true to Tony and both were what he wanted to hear. There was nowhere for him to go, nowhere for him to hide. All of his worst fears and hopes were being exposed side by side and he could only kneel there and face it.

“I deserve it,” Tony sobbed at last as Bruce ran his fingers through his hair. 

“It’s okay,” he repeated again. “We’ll do it together, okay? Together.” 

Tony nodded as Rhodey wrapped his fingers around Tony's hip and jerked him back. 

“Ass up,” Rhodey demanded and Tony complied, burying his head in Bruce’s lap. “You’re going to feel it tonight.” 

Tony whimpered and Bruce turned his face gently so that Tony could look up at him if he wanted as he stroked his hair. 

“It’ll be over soon,” Bruce promised and he watched Tony’s jaw clench. 

“Ready?” Rhodey asked, the callous veneer falling for a moment, expressing genuine concern before he began. 

“Do it,” Tony ground out, glancing back at Rhodey for a minute and then back up at Bruce who smiled down at him, running his knuckles down his cheek. 

“Count,” Rhodey commanded as he shifted the paddle from his left to his right hand and then brought it down hard on the fleshy part of Tony’s ass. 

“One!” Tony gasped out, his fingers stretching on the comforter and Bruce grabbed his hand, holding it tight. 

Rhodey gave him no time to prepare for the second hit or the third or the fourth. The only break he got was after five when Rhodey switched sides. Bruce rubbed Tony's shoulders and kept their connection open with verbal contact. 

“You’re doing so good, Tony, so good,” he murmured as Tony’s fingernails bit into his hand. 

“Nine!” he cried out, the deep, even breaths he had been taking to pace himself through it becoming more ragged by the second. 

There was one last smack and Tony just lay there in Bruce’s lap, breathing hard, and Bruce felt a sense of relief that this part was over. 

“I can’t hear you,” Rhodey growled and smacked his ass with the paddle one more time and Tony whimpered. 

“Ten,” he forced out, nuzzling his nose into Bruce’s thigh as Bruce ran his fingers through his hair and murmured “good, good.”

Bruce looked up at Rhodey, looking a little worn around the edges, sweat breaking on his brow and breathing heavy too. He rubbed Tony’s ass roughly with one large hand and Tony whimpered. 

“Do you think you’re done?” Rhodey asked with wicked amusement and though Tony’s hand had gone slack in Bruce’s it tightened again as his face twisted in trepidation. 

“Rhodes,” Bruce warned quietly, feeling heat in his belly at the idea of Tony taking any more after the past few months they’d had. 

“I know what you need,” Rhodey replied with a possessive hand on Tony’s back and a pointed look at Bruce. 

Bruce swallowed. It was a look that didn’t invite objection. It was a look that made Bruce’s blood hot. And he knew what Rhodey said was not exclusively for Tony – Rhodey knew what  _ he _ needed too. And he was going to give it to him. 

Rhodey sat up then, reaching over to grab a bottle of lube he’d set on the bed earlier with a few other supplies. He opened the cap, poured it in his palm, tilting his hand forward and watching it run down his fingers and Tony lay in Bruce’s lap, unable to see what was happening, trembling with anticipation. 

“The military did a real number on me,” Rhodey repeatedly blandly, planting his left hand on Tony’s sore ass, making him gasp. “You have no idea.” 

With that Rhodey speared Tony with two quick fingers and he gasped and cried out, squirming forward and grasping at Bruce. Bruce desperately wanted to grab him up in his arms and hold him and kiss him and comfort him but Tony had to stay bent over so Rhodey could prep him. All Bruce could do was uselessly stroke Tony's hair and whisper dumb, meaningless platitudes as Rhodey fucked him hard with his fingers. 

“I could torture you to within an inch of your life.” Rhodey’s fingers dug into the red marks on Tony’s ass, making him cry out in pain. “I could have you begging me to stop.”

“ _ Please _ ,” Tony begged in response and Bruce honestly wasn’t sure whether Tony was begging him to stop or to keep going. 

“It’s okay,” Bruce assured him dumbly as Rhodey twisted his fingers inside his body and made him twitch and shake. “I’m here, I’ll protect you.”

“I could take you apart piece by piece until you didn’t even know your own name,” he threatened and Bruce watched him add another finger, still pumping into him fast but stretching him out slowly. 

“Please, oh fuck – please –  _ please _ ,” Tony pleaded, gasping for breath as his fingers clutched at Bruce’s hand and twisted in his shirt, laying there so still and pliant for Rhodey. 

“You’re so good – you’re doing so well,” Bruce assured him as he watched Tony come apart at the seams, feeling the tension easing out of Tony’s shoulders even though if  _ he _ were on the receiving end of that he would be strung so tight he’d be about to snap. 

“But instead I’m going to fuck you so hard you can’t walk tomorrow,” Rhodey snarled and Tony keened. 

“Fuck yes,  _ please _ !” Tony’s voice pitched just this side of desperate and Bruce hated the way that sound made him hard but aw, fuck – there it was. Bruce was pretty damn good at fooling himself, but he simply wasn’t capable of denying how much it turned him on to watch Tony beg, to watch him fall apart.

Rhodey ripped his hand from Tony’s ass and slapped it where it stung and Tony cried out again. Rhodey hadn’t spanked him that long but he spanked him hard enough that any time contact was made with the skin it stung. And Bruce knew, knew because Tony told him, there would be a point where it didn’t hurt anymore, not really, it was just a wash of strong sensation as his mind tripped out and he disassociated but right now he clearly still felt the sting. And Bruce felt it with him, wishing he could take it away, but all he could do was lean forward and kiss his back and tell him it was going to be okay. 

Rhodey unbuttoned his shirt, letting it hang from his shoulders, and he opened his belt and his button and his fly, pushing down his pants and his boxers to his knees. Bruce followed suit as Rhodey slipped on a condom, pulling his shirt over his head and discarding it beside him. He wanted to feel Tony against his body – every smooth inch of him. Even more than the sex, that’s what he wanted. Tony flayed open and vulnerable against him, all of their higher-level existential bullshit falling away and leaving just them, just bodies. Rhodey knew that. Rhodey knew.

“Sit up,” Rhodey said roughly, grabbing at his hip when Tony struggled to comply – but Bruce helped. 

He kissed Tony’s mouth as Rhodey drug him back and away, into his lap and Bruce took a moment to undo his own pants. He slid them down to his knees as well before moving forward to help position Tony and hold him up between their bodies. 

Tony’s dick was hard and leaking and the sight of it made Bruce ache. He wanted to lean down and lap at it, lick it clean and suckle on it, hear Tony moaning because of him, because of pleasure and not pain. But sometimes Tony needed pain. He just needed to drown in it. Have his head shoved so far under water that he couldn’t think anymore. 

And Tony’s eyes shot open when Rhodey breached him and he blinked with surprise, staring at Bruce like he wasn’t exactly sure where he was and that’s when Bruce knew he was starting to lose it. Bruce kissed him thoroughly as he panted into his mouth, little whines and gasps as Rhodey slid in slowly, careful not to hurt him despite his tough facade. This was caring too, in its own way. Bruce struggled to believe it, sometimes, but it was. 

“You’re such a fucking slut,” Rhodey gasped when Tony was finally seated fully in his lap, one large hand coming up to encircle his neck right beneath the jaw, pressing firm but not choking. “One dick just isn’t enough for you, is it?” 

“Fuck Tony,” Bruce breathed as he moved in, reaching for the lube with one hand and bringing his other hand up to the base of Tony’s skull, staring into his glassed over eyes. “You are so goddamn gorgeous.”

Rhodey flexed his hips up, sitting up, pushing Tony forward and straight into Bruce. The clash of their bodies felt amazing on Bruce’s skin – Tony’s hot and sweaty already and Bruce’s cool from air conditioning and lack of stimulation and it felt really fucking good. Tony’s hands came up to Bruce’s shoulders reflexively, holding on, and his dick rubbed up hard against Bruce’s and Bruce gave himself a moment to relish in the feel of it before he worked at the cap on the bottle of lube one handed. 

“This is all you’re good for, isn’t it?” Rhodey hissed in his ear as Bruce kissed him. 

“You’re so beautiful, baby,” Bruce placated, sliding his lube slicked hand between their bodies as Rhodey’s grip tightened around his throat. 

“You don’t  _ deserve _ this,” Rhodey said as Tony began to moan, continuous, low and lost as his fingers slipped on Bruce’s shoulders, weak but still trying to hold on. 

“I wish I could give you everything – you deserve everything,” Bruce told him, his lips working against Tony’s, his forehead pressed into Tony’s, his hand on his dick and Tony’s, working them together slowly, each rough roll of Rhodey’s hips pushing them closer together. 

“You’re nothing but a pretty little whore and everyone fucking knows it,” Rhodey growled, digging his hand into Tony’s hip to help him find the strength in his body to keep fucking up into him.

“You’re everything I need, everything I want,” Bruce told him earnestly as he licked little kisses into the edges of his lips. 

“Sitting pretty for the cameras, saying all the right words,” Rhodey gasped, hips speeding up a little as he fucked into Tony with measured strokes. 

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Bruce said, feeling tears sting his sinuses as Tony choked himself on the hand Rhodey had around his throat trying to blindly bury his face in Bruce’s neck. 

“I see right through you, you pathetic little boy,” Rhodey grunted and Bruce knew from experience that he was getting close but he was lost in the sensation of Tony’s dick against his and the beautiful, little tortured sounds Tony was making as tears dripped down his cheeks. 

“I love you so much – so, so much,” Bruce told him, kissing at his cheeks as he pulled them off together.

“You’ll never be anything more than a lost little boy,” Rhodey said, fingers tightening against his jaw as his thrusts grew jerky, “looking for someone to give a shit about you.”

“You’re my everything, my whole world,” Bruce assured him back, pressed close, chest flighty as he grew closer to the edge. “I’m sorry I’m not a better man for you.”

Bruce gasped as he came suddenly, shooting thick, hot cum between their bodies, feeling it all the way down to his toes, embarrassed that that particular confession is what triggered him but then that was the crux of the issue. It was everything he wanted to say for the past two months but couldn’t. A few of his own tears slid down his cheeks as he buried his face in Tony’s neck, right up under Rhodey’s wrist, wanting to be as physically close to him as possible as he released his own steadily softening dick and switched his hand to simply jerking off Tony. 

“Aw, fuck,” Rhodey groaned and his hand moved from around Tony’s neck to fisting itself in Bruce’s hair and Bruce groaned at the feeling of it as Rhodey pulled Tony back into him by the hip and fucked into him with a few final, ill timed thrusts until he was spent. 

Rhodey lay his head on Tony’s back, his hand slackening in Bruce’s hair but not letting go completely. His other hand came around between their bodies, covering Bruce’s as he jerked Tony off quickly. 

“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered in Tony’s ear, patting his hair as Tony lay there limply between the two of them, crying a little through his soft moans. “You’re done now. You did so good. You can let go now. You can come.”

It took a few more seconds but Tony came, crying out a little as he did, none of his characteristic frantic hand grasps or cursing, his already limp body completely disintegrating between them until the only thing holding him up was Bruce’s counter pressure. Bruce released him and wrapped his arm around his back, careful not to press his dirty hand against it, and he kissed his cheek as Rhodey rubbed his hands into Tony's back gently, kissing his shoulder as well. 

“I love you,” Bruce whispered, hoping that wherever Tony was he could hear it. “I love you so much.”

“We both do,” Rhodey told him, removing his hand from Bruce’s head and stroking back Tony’s hair, shifting so that he could pull out and then helping Bruce lay Tony down in the center of the bed. 

Bruce was the first to get up, using the bathroom and cleaning off, wiping his face and his chest and his stomach before wetting a towel and bringing it in for Tony. Rhodey was sitting on the bed next to him, eyes locked with Tony’s, running his fingers across his forehead gently, giving him soft praise, and Bruce’s heart lurched in his chest. Maybe in another life or when he was a younger man he would have felt jealousy – but what he really felt right then was whole. Tony was safe with Rhodey. He’d picked a good friend. He hoped Tony’s judgement was just as good when Tony had picked him. Sometimes Bruce wasn’t sure. 

But right now all of that was pushed aside as he sat down next to Rhodey, giving him a fond smile before turning to Tony. 

“You’re so beautiful,” Bruce told him as he wiped his face and Tony sighed like his whole body was going to melt straight into the bed below. 

“You were perfect,” Bruce continued, trailing down his chest, wiping up cum and lube in long, firm swipes. “Wasn’t he perfect, Rhodey?” 

“Absolutely perfect,” Rhodey agreed as Tony hummed at the positive attention. 

Bruce held out the cloth for him to take back to the bathroom and Rhodey took it, getting up and leaving them alone for a moment. He kissed Tony’s brow and grabbed a chocolate bar from the end table, unwrapping it and breaking off a square for him. 

“Hey baby,” he said to get Tony’s attention. “You okay?” 

“Yeah,” he managed to sigh and Bruce placed his hand on his cheek, thumb on his jaw. 

“Can you eat this?” 

Tony nodded, opening his mouth, and Bruce slipped the square of chocolate onto his tongue and then crawled over on the other side of him, curling up behind him and wrapping an arm around his chest. His limp dick pressed against Tony’s ass as he pulled him close and kissed the back of his neck and finally Tony’s hand covered his, squeezing it a little. 

“I hope it was good for you,” Bruce murmured in his ear, his lips whispering along the back of it. “I’m sorry the last few months have been so bad. I – I love you so much and all I want is for you to be happy and I... I try. I hope you know that I try.” 

Tony’s hand tightened on his as Rhodey came in and joined them in bed, sliding up next to Tony. 

“Chocolate?” he asked as he kissed Tony’s forehead and stroked at his hair. 

“Want a piece?” Bruce asked, lifting it from where he was holding it on the pillow over Tony’s head. 

“Mine,” Tony muttered, licking melted chocolate out of his mouth as Rhodey grinned and reached up to break off another piece and feed it to him. 

“You feel better, buddy?” Rhodey asked and Tony nodded and snuggled in between them contentedly. “What about you, Bruce?” 

Bruce shifted so that he was up on one elbow and he pillowed his chin on Tony’s bicep, looking down at Rhodey. 

“What about you?” 

It was rare that Rhodey looked chagrined – and never thanks to something Bruce had said – but he sure did now. He was quiet so long even Tony opened his eyes to look at him. 

“I –” he started but then stopped, swallowing and laughing a little so Tony reached out and grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together. 

“We know you can’t talk about work,” Bruce said quietly, “but you can talk about yourself.” 

“I’m not so good at that part,” Rhodey admitted, looking away like he was embarrassed. Bruce wasn’t sure he had ever seen Rhodey actually  _ embarrassed _ . 

“Love you, honeybear,” Tony slurred with a mouth full of melted chocolate, lifting his hand from where they were still entwined and kissing Rhodey’s knuckles lightly. 

“Love you too, idiot,” he replied affectionately and Bruce cleared his throat.

“Don’t get distracted,” Bruce commanded and maybe Rhodey had been in charge during sex but here, in this situation, Bruce was in charge and he watched Rhodey’s eyes slip back up to look at him with reservation. “You’ll have to listen to us whine and bitch for the next however long about our petty little shit problems until you’re sent to Iran or Afghanistan or whatever again to negotiate whatever the fuck you do over there – so tell us this once. Do  _ you _ feel better now?” 

“I – yeah,” Rhodey said, running his hand over his face self-consciously but when it fell away his lips were quirked in a guilty grin. “Yeah – I do.” 

“Good,” Bruce said, “because we want you to get something out of this too, okay? And sometimes it’s hard to tell what the hell that might be.”

“Sex isn’t enough?” Rhodey asked and Bruce snorted and rolled his eyes and they both kind of chuckled. 

“I can’t speak for Tony but I’m pretty sure you can do better than this.” 

Rhodey frowned as he reached up for the chocolate in Bruce’s hand, breaking off another piece for Tony and feeding it to him with a kiss pressed against his forehead as Tony grinned happily and then breaking off a piece for Bruce too. Bruce took it as the offering it was from Rhodey’s fingers and Rhodey lay back again, contended by that. 

“No – you don’t know,” he said slowly, looking down at the wrapper, thumbing it. “The stress is unbelievable and the shit you hear, the things people say to you? And me, a high-ranking, educated black man from a good background? I have to sit there and take it and smile every time, accept whatever backhanded, racist slur they call me and whatever shit assignment they give me with a ‘yes sir, and would you like me to polish your dick too while I’m down here?’” 

He growled and snapped off another piece of chocolate as Bruce swallowed, all of this a revelation to him, nothing he had ever heard Rhodey say before. 

“You think just anyone has enough ego to take the shit I say to Tony and actually  _ enjoy _ it? This is the only place I can get even a fraction of that shit off my chest.”

He popped the piece of chocolate in his mouth with a sense of finality and Bruce felt stunned. Never had he thought of it that way before. It never made sense to him how Rhodey could be so cruel to someone he clearly loved so much. But he lived in a world of cruelty. And he was trusting Tony to take it and tell him to stop when he couldn’t take it anymore. 

Suddenly he saw their friendship in a new light and it was far more multifaceted and far more... more beautiful than he had realized before. And maybe a little more codependent than he realized as well. 

For a moment he moved his hand from Tony’s chest, reaching out to press his palm to Rhodey’s cheek, stroking his thumb along it slowly – but only for a moment. They weren’t as intimate as he and Tony were and he didn’t want Rhodey to be embarrassed. But Bruce did want him to know just how much sharing that little bit about himself meant to him. 

“Thank you,” he said as he drew his hand away and Rhodey kind of nodded but clearly didn’t want to acknowledge it that directly so Bruce let it go. 

He sunk back down on his side of the bed and Tony turned over onto his back, turning his head to look at him. Tony’s eyes were clearer now, more lucid, and they studied each other for a moment – an affirmative thing Bruce always appreciated. A deep understanding that didn’t need words. ‘I’m okay,’ Tony said. ‘I love you,’ Tony said. And he leaned in and kissed Bruce, long and deep with his warm mouth tasting of chocolate and Bruce kissed back, letting him know ‘I’m okay, too’ and ‘I love you, too.’

Then he flopped the few inches it took back over and looked at Rhodey lying next to him and spread out his arm over his head. 

“C’mere, platypus,” he teased, “and bring that chocolate.” 

Rhodey laughed as he set the chocolate in the center of Tony’s chest, moving in to pillow his head on Tony’s shoulder and hook a leg around his before breaking the last two pieces in half and putting one in Tony’s waiting mouth. 

Tony grinned salaciously as he sucked on it, tonguing it to one cheek so he could talk. 

“I’ve got the best two guys in the whole wide world,” he said generously, squeezing Rhodey’s shoulder as he ruffled Bruce’s hair and Bruce laughed, snuggling in closer to him and pressing a kiss against his neck as he nosed affectionately at Tony’s ear. 

“I beg to differ,” Bruce said softly. “Pretty sure you’re the best.”

“Hm,” Rhodey hummed his agreement. “Bruce’s got you there.” 

Tony’s cheeks pinked a little but there was nowhere for him to hide, pinned in between the two of them and Bruce chuckled against the side of his face, plying him with little kisses. 

“Nah,” Tony laughed, trying to shy away from how Bruce was tickling his oversensitive skin with his lips and his five o’clock shadow. “I would never feed you guys chocolate. Definitely better than me.” 

Rhodey laughed as he held up the last piece for Tony to take from his fingers, crumbling up the wrapper once he took it and throwing it haphazardly over Bruce’s shoulder. 

“You don’t have to,” Rhodey told him earnestly, splaying his longer fingers across Tony’s chest. “You’ve done enough. More than enough.”

“All you have to do now is rest,” Bruce assured him, sitting up enough to get the comforter they had learned to conveniently fold down over itself a few times on the end of the bed and dragging it over their bodies as Tony sighed happily, heavy eyes looking at him and then Rhodey and then back to him as he threw the comforter over them all. “And if you  _ really _ can’t walk, we can order in tonight.”

“Oh my god,” Tony groaned as Rhodey laughed and Bruce smiled down at them both before tucking himself back up against Tony’s body.

In that moment despite all logic and reason Bruce knew in his heart Tony really was the best guy in the world. And he was pretty sure Rhodey wasn’t a far second.


End file.
